218 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 
less and well-nigh insensible gradations that 
even our great special student of the Com- 
posite: pronounces the accurate and final 
classification of this particular genus a labor 
beyond his powers. What shall we say of 
this habit of variability? Is it a mark of 
strength or of weakness? Which is nobler, 
—to be true to one’s ideal in spite of cir- 
cumstances, or to conquer circumstances by 
suiting one’s self to them? Who shall de- 
cide? Enough that the twin-flower and the 
star-flower each obeys its own law, and in so 
doing contributes each its own part toward 
making this world the place of diversified 
beauty which it was foreordained to be. 
I spoke of the linnza’s autumnal blossoms, 
though its normal flowering time is in June. 
Even this steady-going, unimpressible citi- 
zen of the world, it appears, has its one bit 
of freakishness. In these bright, summery 
September days, when the trees put on their 
glory, this lowliest member of the honey- 
suckle family feels a stirring within to make 
itself beautiful; and being an evergreen (in- 
stead of a summer-green), and therefore in- 
capable of bedecking itself after the maple’s 
manner, it sends up a few flower-stems, 
